The Politics of Play: A Sociocultural Analysis of Play in the Context of State Preschool Standards

The past decade has seen an explosion of brain research and early childhood policies resulting in academics as a priority at state-funded preschools. Although strongly supported through a century of research, play often is pushed out by a more formalized, academic curriculum. Under the direction of the No Child Left Behind Act (2002), and the Race to the Top' program, states have developed early learning standards to inform preschool teachers and direct the education and assessment of preschool children in the United States. Through content analysis early learning standards for the 50 states and the District of Columbia were examined for the frequency of the word play. This study found a range of play frequency in the standards documents across the United States written in response to federal mandates. Case studies of 6 states illustrate the position of play and the prioritization, acceptance or omission of the play as learning paradigm.'

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Croasdell, Michelle

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pence, Lucretia
• Gutierrez-Gomez, Cathy
• Martinez, Glenabah
• Scherba de Valenzuela, Julia
• Winograd, Peter

• Play assessment (Child psychology)
• Early childhood education

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_llss_etds/9

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:educ_llss_etds-1008